Will and Destiny
When I read the epistle lesson for this week, I was initially confounded by this heaping block of text. This covers a lot of ground and makes many claims, but it is hard to find a clear thesis, and really that isn’t the point. This isn’t like modern writing where you would expect to find a clear statement of what the purpose of this writing is or some sort of preview for the epistle. Rather, this entire passage is one long statement of praise. It begins by speaking about blessings all around and ends by praising God’s glory. These sentences are massive and very complicated in Greek, being examples of considerably impressive linguistic skill in the ancient world. But with all this text, one verse in particular stood out to me: verse eleven. And the reason it stood out to me is because I think that when you truly break it down and think about it, this sentence is the most likely to frighten people.
“In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will.”
Did you catch the scary bit? I couldn’t blame you if you didn’t. Inheritance certainly looks like a hopeful and inspiring word. The thought of God accomplishing everything is certainly comforting, so what exactly is the problem?
Well, if you think about them carefully and how they relate, the words “destined” and “will” may give you some pause. In this verse, we are destined, but God has a will. Perhaps destiny and will aren’t mutually exclusive, but here we are reaping the benefits of a path God set us on. We are receiving the rewards of something that not only did we not work for, we also didn’t choose. We don’t give ourselves purpose. God does. We don’t choose our destination. God does. We don’t have a will with the capacity to accomplish all things. God does. So, where does that leave us?
Well, the question of free will is a complicated one in Christianity. We certainly want to have free will, or at least we think we want it. If we have free will, then we can take some credit for our good actions. We can also feel the full weight of the responsibility for our bad actions and make the necessary corrections in our life. With free will, we can explain why some people don’t follow God even when we are sure it is the right choice. With free will, we can maintain the idea of divine punishment without feeling guilty about it. We can even explain away suffering and evil in the world. The reason bad things happen to good people is because God gave humans the gift of free will and we have chosen to hurt others with it. We believe that without free will, our choice for God would be meaningless. God wants us to have free will because otherwise it wouldn’t be satisfying to God when we choose to worship God and follow the teachings of the Bible.
This, of course, begs the question, “Is the satisfaction of God dependent upon human behavior?” Does God really need me to make God feel happy? Does God require something of me that God cannot provide for Godself? Furthermore, can we choose to be evil in a way that God can’t predict? If so, doesn’t that diminish God’s ability to know all and see the future? Does God’s great plan depend on humans eventually cooperating? Is God playing the odds against human behavior that even God can’t predict perfectly?
When put that way, free will makes God not sound very God-like. The work that the idea of free will does, ultimately comes up short in a lot of ways. When you delve into it, you find more questions than definitive answers, more contradictions than explanations.
Luther didn’t talk much about the freedom of the will. He referred to the will being bound. We are beasts of burden, guided by either God or the devil. When God is controlling us, we do good for our neighbor and properly praise and glorify God. When the devil is controlling us, we do evil to our neighbor and turn away from God’s love and light into selfish self-serving or self-loathing or both. When neither is piloting us, we just stand there. Our actions depend upon who is driving us, but we aren’t really ever effectively driving ourselves.
This may seem really uncomfortable. The idea that our will isn’t free, or that it is entirely an illusion developed to make us feel secure in our decisions is unsettling. We want agency in our lives. We don’t want to be flotsam being tossed by the tides. We want to believe that we give ourselves drive, a goal, a purpose in life. We want to believe that we make our own meaning, write our own story.
And yet, when I think about it, I’m not sure I want that after all. When I am left to my own devices, I usually mess up. If I’m learning a new skill, I want someone with me every step of the way to guide me so I don’t make any terrible mistakes. If I’m trying something unfamiliar and I get everything right on the first try, then I must have been incredibly lucky. I’m usually not very lucky. In life, we have so many situations that are completely new and unfamiliar. We may be able to pull from past precedent for many, but each situation is unique. Even things that seem repetitive are different when different people are involved. Humans are complicated and our lives are messy. If we must make all our own choices, we will get sloppy.
Fortunately, God doesn’t leave something as important as salvation up to our own choices. If we could mess it up, we would. God takes control of our lives and makes God’s will our destiny. From this act of divine love holding authority over us, we are set free to serve our neighbors in love. We may not do that perfectly either, but God’s guidance pours forth from salvation into the rest of our lives. God points our lives to the ministry of Jesus for salvation and guidance. Through Christ we have an inheritance and a destiny because whether or not we could choose it on our own doesn’t matter. God chose for us, and ultimately that is a comforting thought.
